Beamless-brake mechanism.



110,867,401. PATBNTED 0e11, 1907.

' =1. B. McKIEL.

BBAMLESS BRAKE MECHANISM.

mumm nun June, 1901.

ATTORNE ys UNITED STATES JAMES B. MCKIEL, OF MARSHALL, TEXAS.

BEAMLESS-BRAKE MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 1, 1907.

Application filed July 9, 1907. Serial No- 382,869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES B. MCKIEL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Marshall, in the county of Harrison and State of Texas, haveinvented anew and useful BeamlessBrake Mechanism, of which the followingis a specification.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a beamlessbrake of such construction that the stress exerted during the brakingoperation will all be of a tensional character, and in which uniformaction of all of the brakes, and uniform pressure oi all of the brakeshoes may be effected.

A further object of the invention is to provide an arrangement ofbraking rods or levers in which the strain on all of the rods throughoutthe system from the initial point of application of power to the brakeshoes will be tensional. i

With these and other objects in view, as will more fully hereinafterappear the invention consists in certain novel features of constructionand arrangement of parts, hereinafter fully described, illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, and particularly pointed out in the appendedclaims, it being understood that various changes in the form,proportions, size and minor details of the structure may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of theinvention.

In the accompanying drawingsz-Figure 1 is a plan view of a beamlessbrake system constructed and arranged in accordance with the invention.Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view of a portion of one of the trucksshowing the mounting of a pair of brake shoes. Fig. 3 is a detailperspective view oi'a pair of brake levers and a floating lever showingtheir connections.

Similar numerals of reference are employed to indi- Cate correspondingparts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

Projecting from the opposite sides of the transoms 32 are spaced lugs 40provided with openings 42 which serve for the passage of pivot pins 44that carry the brake lever 45. Each of the brake levers carries at itslower end a brake shoe head 46 to which may be attached a brake shoe 47of any ordinary construction.

In arranging the braking system, provision is made for exercising adirect pull on all of the brake lever conl necting rods, so that thereshall be no thrust strain. For this purpose the primary lever 50 ispivoted at 51 to a part of the car frame, and the secondary lever 52 ispivoted at 53 to the car frame. The piston rod 54 of j the brakecylinder exercises a direct outward thrust on the lever 50, and thispulls the connecting rod 52 which joins the primary and secondary leversin the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1. This movement istransmitted to a cross bar 58 by a connecting rod 59 and from this crossbar the movement is transmitted through a pair oi rods (30 to levers 61,there being one of such levers adjacent each pair of wheels at the sameside of the truck. Each lever 61 is connected by a pair of rods 62 tothe brake shoe carrying levers 45. The same construction is followed atthe opposite end of the car.

It will be noted that from the primary lever outward in both directionsto the brake shoe levers the strain on every rod is a pulling strain andgreater force may be transmitted by tensional strain than through thruststrain on any rods of equal weight. The rods may, therefore, be mademuch lighter than usual andtherc is no tendency to buckle as is the casewhere relatively light rods are subjected to endwise compression.

I claim:-

1. In a beamless brake, brake shoe levers, brake shoes carried thereby,a floating lever for each pair of brake shoe levers, tension rodsconnecting the floating lever to the brake shoe lever, primary andsecondary brake levers, and tension rods connecting the primary andsecondary levers to the floating levers.

2. In beamless brakes, a pair of brake shoe levers. brake shoes thereon,a floating lever arranged between and pivotally connected to both brakeshoe levers. tension rods connecting the floating lever to the brakeshoe levers, and

l a tension rod for operating the floating lever.

! 3. In beamless brakes, a pair of vertically swinging levers, pivotlugs-on which said levers are mounted, brake shoe heads pivoted to thelower ends of said levers, brake shoes carried by the head, a floating;lever arranged between the two vertically pivoted levers, and tensionrods connecting said lever to the floating lever.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto affixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JAMES B. MCKIEL.

Witnesses:

CLIFFORD R. BONHAM, B. L. LANGLEY.

